HAMAXO´PODES
HAMAXO´PODES (
ἁμαξόποδες), in Latin ARBUSCULAE, appear to have been cylindrical
pieces of wood, placed vertically, and with a socket cut in the lower end,
to receive the upright pivot fixed above a wheel or above the middle of the
axis of a pair of wheels, which could thus turn horizontally in every
direction. One use of this sort of socket was to unite the axis of the
fore-wheels of a chariot to the body (
ἁμαξήποδες, Pollux, 1.144, 253;
ἁμαξίποδες,
Hesych. sub voce); another use of it was to
attach the wheels of a testudo to the framing in such a manner that the
machine might easily be moved in any direction: in fact, the
arbuscula and the wheel together formed a castor or
universal joint (
Vitr. 10.20, s. 14.1, ed.
Schneid.). Newton (
ad loc.) supposes that, for the
latter purpose, a single piece of timber would be both clumsy and
insufficient, and that the
arbuscula must have
been a sort of framing.
[p. 1.933](See his figure, No. 114;
Ginzrot,
Wagen und Fahrwerke, 1.91, fig. 3.)
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